The goal of this assignment is to give you the experience of collecting and analyzing data from a second language (L2) learner.

MUST BE APA FORMAT!

See all attached documents. There is a template you need to follow in APA format, Data sets you will need to analyze carefully from both the L1 (baseline native English speaker, and L2 English learner. You will need to analyze the interference and transfer from the L1 native language, Chinese, onto their learning of the L2, English. Your focus will be primarily on the VERB conjugations(past and progressive) and NOUN pluralizations! see attached documents. 

Quick note: Chinese does NOT conjugate verbs nor does it pluralize nouns. This is why I am focusing on the interference of the L1 on the learning of the L2

If you don’t think you have enough data, let me know ASAP so I can provide more!

The PDFs are of a sample of verb conjugations and noun pluralizations that both the L1 and L2 took. The purple highlighted boxed indicate incorrect conjugation.

Below are some sources you can use, in addition to whatever you find that is more relevant. Please use the Hummel, K for sure, and the Berko, J

Berko, J. (1958). The child′s learning of English morphology, Word, 14, 150-177.

Pavlenko, A. (2002). Bidirectional Transfer. Applied Linguistics – APPL LINGUIST. 23. 190-214. 

Hummel, K. (2014). Introducing Second Language Acquisition: perspectives and practices. 138-151 JOHN WILEY & SONS.

Imai, M., Haryu, E., Hirsh-Pasek, K., Li, L., Okada, H., Golinkoff, R., & Shigematsu, J. (2008). Novel Noun and Verb Learning in Chinese-, English-, and Japanese-Speaking Children. Child Development, 79(4), 979-1000. Retrieved February 26, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/27563533

CROWTHER, D., TROFIMOVICH, P., SAITO, K., & ISAACS, T. (2015). Second Language Comprehensibility Revisited: Investigating the Effects of Learner Background. TESOL Quarterly, 49(4), 814-837. Retrieved February 26, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/43893788

Severino, C., & Prim, S. (2015). Word Choice Errors in Chinese Students′ English Writing and How Online Writing Center Tutors Respond to Them. The Writing Center Journal, 34(2), 115-143. Retrieved February 26, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/43442807

urgentlinguisticsresearch paperAPA Format

Notes

1. Ask the participant to explain their education experiences.? How was the experience of learning the L2? Was it immersion?

I. He/She pronouns

II.
Wug
test for
plurality
.( not pronunciation of the (s/z))

III.

I

V.

Ricking
test for past tense. (something similar for conjugating present tense)

V.

·

List stats of each participant including age, length of L2 study, education level, Familial exposure to the L2,

· Gather data samples in both oral recording with transcripts and written.

· Find a native speaker for baseline comparison.

· Compare the data.

· Restrict to one L1

· Learners English book.

· Possible phonology

· Describe pictures

· Describe favorite movie plot

· Explain education experience through to uni.

· Something that will elicit past tense conjugation.

· Take oral exam then a week later written on the same question. Compare data.

· I will focus on the use of plurality (s’), use of pronouns (he/she/his/hers) and past tense conjugation of verbs. All of the aforementioned structures are areas I’ve noticed native Chinese L1 learning English as L2 have the most difficulty in obtaining accuracy.

· L2 learners have strong interference from their L1, referring to some grammar, but mainly pragmatics? Such as verb conjugation or plurality of nouns.

·
From “Bidirectional Transfer”

Method

Four 3-minute long films with a sound track but no dialogue were used for

narrative elicitation purposes. Previously, films have been used successfully

for narrative elicitation purposes in the crosslinguistic study of narrative

production *Chafe 1980; Tannen 1980, 1993) and in the study of SLA

*Bardovi-Harlig and Reynolds 1995; Becker and Carroll 1997; Jarvis 1998;

McClure 1991; Perdue 1993). This methodology, which presents subjects with

a uniform non-verbal prompt, is a variation of the better-known picture task

elicitation procedure. Both of these types of data elicitation allow the

researcher to keep the data more or less homogeneous by holding the

semantic referents constant *in contrast to elicited personal narratives, which

exhibit significantly more variation). Using films rather than pictures,

however, has the advantage of making the storytelling task less artificial

and more similar to spontaneous narratives *Tannen 1980, 1993). By using

this technique and by holding our experimental conditions relatively constant

*see below), we were able to elicit narrative data that we believe are optimal

in terms of comparability across subjects and language conditions. On the

other hand, the narratives elicited through this approach were relatively

short, so in the future it would be helpful to elicit a larger variety and longer

stretches of data.

Transcript of simple conversation with the L2

· When did you begin to study English?

· “At my kindergarten, start with simple vocabulary and alphabet.”

· How long have you studied English?

· “active study is 6 years. Total studies is from kindergarten to now”

· What did you have the most difficulties with when you started to learn English?

· “I think my majority of difficulties come from writing. I didn’t put much attention to grammar.” “I used to translate from Chinese to English when I was learning. It made bad clarity for my grammar and sentence.”

· How did you study English at school? (all years studied)

· “First remember the vocabulary. Then try to remember the vocabulary by using and speaking it. First listen to the word then speak it, then use it in a sentence. Other that that learning grammar by practicing. By use practice sheet. They give you a grammar sheet to practice what you don’t understand, over and over again. For the listening and speaking part, they give you videos or sound track to listen and practice to. And most of my English skill come from practice for the toefl”

· Was English spoken at all at home?

· “probably not”

· Did any family members know English?

· “Like two generation higher than me only know basic english but not good. One generation has mediocre ability. “

· What do you think you have the most trouble with now, in regard to English?

· “I would say also writing. Not changing. But my speaking skills have improved but my writing skills did not improved much.”

· Do you have any trouble with verb conjugations? EG. Past tense, current tense? Plurality of nouns?

· “yes. A lot. That is the biggest mistakes I made in writing. Also trouble with singular and plural.”

·

Possible sources

Berko Gleason, Jean. (1958). The Child’s Learning of English Morphology. Word. 14. 10.1080/00437956.1958.11659661.

Berko, J. (1958). The child’s learning of English morphology, Word, 14, 150-177.

Pavlenko, A. (2002). Bidirectional Transfer. Applied Linguistics – APPL LINGUIST. 23. 190-214.

Miller, D. (2020, February). Chpt. 6: Second Language Development. Chpt. 6: Second Language Development. Santa Cruz.

Hummel, K. (2014). Introducing Second Language Acquisition: perspectives and practices. 138-151 JOHN WILEY & SONS.

Imai, M., Haryu, E., Hirsh-Pasek, K., Li, L., Okada, H., Golinkoff, R., & Shigematsu, J. (2008). Novel Noun and Verb Learning in Chinese-, English-, and Japanese-Speaking Children. Child Development, 79(4), 979-1000. Retrieved February 26, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/27563533

CROWTHER, D., TROFIMOVICH, P., SAITO, K., & ISAACS, T. (2015). Second Language Comprehensibility Revisited: Investigating the Effects of Learner Background. TESOL Quarterly, 49(4), 814-837. Retrieved February 26, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/43893788

Severino, C., & Prim, S. (2015). Word Choice Errors in Chinese Students’ English Writing and How Online Writing Center Tutors Respond to Them. The Writing Center Journal, 34(2), 115-143. Retrieved February 26, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/43442807

Overview: The goal of this assignment is to give you the experience of collecting and analyzing data from a second language (L2) learner.

How to begin: Find an L2 learner who is willing to be your research subject. Since you will be analyzing language, this should be a learner of a language that you are highly proficient in (e.g., most likely, your L1 or dominant language). Interview your subject to gather basic information about their language learning experience. Relevant questions might include: at what age did this person begin learning the L2? Did they learn the language primarily in a naturalistic or instructional context? You might want to use or modify questions that guided your own linguistic autobiography. You should ask questions about areas of interest to you (e.g., explicit learning, teaching methods they found most useful, self-reported proficiency in the L2, attitudes and motivation, personality, learning strategies, etc.).

Note:
Please let me know ASAP if you cannot find an L2 learner.

Data collection: You will need to get a sample of the person’s language, either oral or written. To do so, consider using one or more tasks that elicit language production. Your elicitation task will be based on what you’re interested in investigating. There are numerous options, including:

·

picture stories or comic strips (especially if they have no written text)

· film narration (ask them to tell you the plot of a film they’ve seen recently, or to narrate a youtube clip that has no dialogue—or with sound turned off)

· personal narrative (ask them to tell you about an important event in their life)

· picture description (ask them to describe a photo or compare a series of photos)

· role plays

·
Note:
If you gather oral data, you will need to digitally record the person’s output for transcription. Important: You cannot record the person without their knowledge and consent! Also, to maintain the anonymity of your participant(s), use pseudonyms.

Other possible options: (a) gather oral and written data and compare them (i.e., have the participant do the same task in each modality) (b) get a native speaker baseline (i.e., have a native speaker do the same task for the purposes of comparison) (c) collect and compare samples from learners at different proficiency levels who’ve had different learning experiences.

Target Feature(s): You can chose any (combination of) linguistic feature(s) for your analysis in any subsystem of language that interests you (e.g., phonology, morphology, vocabulary, syntax, pragmatics). Your focus may be as narrow as, for example, third-person singular –s or past tense markers, or somewhat more broad (e.g., question formation, verb tense/aspect, a speech act such as asking for a favor or apologizing). (Note: You may want to choose features based on previous research, including contrastive analyses or developmental sequences.)

Data analysis: As with your data elicitation method, your analysis will depend on what you’re interested in learning. Again, there are numerous options, including:

· Target-Like Use (TLU) Analysis, which goes beyond error analysis by considering errors and correct uses of a form.

· Complexity, Accuracy, and/or Fluency (CAF) analysis

· Frequency Analysis

Note:
There is no expectation that you will incorporate anything beyond simple descriptive statistics (e.g., frequency, type/token ratios, percentages…)

General Note on Methodology
: You are welcome (and encouraged) to borrow ideas or materials for data elicitation and analysis from any of the studies that we’ve read or that you’ll read in preparation for this assignment. Just be sure to cite the source!

Format, length, and references (FOLLOW PAPER TEMPLATE)

· 5-6 pages (12pt., Times New Roman, font, 1” margins, double-spaced) for the body of the paper

· 1 page appendix with the data (transcribed, if necessary)

· 1 page appendix with the interview questions

· An appendix with any data elicitation materials

· A minimum of 4 references (the textbook can be one of them)

·

Additional option: You may complete this project in pairs or groups of three if you prefer. If you do this, you must include at least one participant for each group member. Also, the required length will be adjusted: for pairs, 7-8 pages; for a group of three, 9-10 pages.)

If you need help, make an appointment to come see me– preferably no sooner than one week before the due date.

Case Study Research Project

a101

Write your name(s) here

University

email@ucsc.edu

Abstract

This is a max 150 word summary of your project. After reading the abstract, the reader should know what your project is about, what the data show, and what your main conclusions are. You should write the abstract last, after you’ve complete the project.

I. Introduction

One or two paragraphs that give an overview of your study, the specific research questions you hope to address, and any matters related to SLA theory that are relevant for your project.

2. Methodology

2.1. Focal participant(s)

This section includes a relevant description and details about your focal participant(s). Remember to use a pseudonym! Provide quantitative details (e.g., age of arrival, length of exposure, years of formal study, etc.) as well a qualitative summary of his/her learning experience, as gathered from your interview (attach interview questions in Appendix).

2.2. Instrument

This section describes the instrument, or materials that you used to elicit the language sample from your participant. For example, if you used a picture description task, you would describe it here. It is perfectly fine to use a task from previous research as long as you cite the source.

2.3. Description of linguistic variable(s)

This subsection provides a description of the linguistic form or structure that you will analyze. For example, if you are looking at object pronouns in L2 Spanish, you will need to specify which ones you’ll consider in your analysis. Some examples are always helpful here. You should also briefly discuss why you chose the feature(s) that you did (i.e., motivation from previous research/theory).

2.4 Data Analysis

In this section you explain what you did with the data after gathering it. For example, oral data were transcribed and divided into AS units. If you only use a portion of the data for analysis, mention that here (e.g., you have 2 hours of oral data but will only analyze the first 20 minutes). Here you also explain the procedure for the analysis you conducted on the target language variable(s). Examples here may be helpful.

3. Results

3.1. Target analysis

In this section you will present the results of your analysis. What are the patterns you notice? Is the participant finding ways to avoid the form(s) in question? Depending on your analysis, this may include quantitative data with tables and/or figures. Also, show relevant examples here, and make sure to attach the data in an Appendix.

3.2. Additional analyses

Generally speaking, there is always something else interesting in the data that you wish to comment on. Your planned analysis likely doesn’t reveal everything going on in the sample, so here is your opportunity to examine other interesting aspects. For example, you may choose to comment on lexical choices or even present a measure of lexical diversity. If the learner is using the form in question but restricted to one or two lexical items, that is something potentially interesting to mention. If you gathered native speaker baseline data, you will present it here.

4. Discussion and conclusion

The purpose of the discussion section is to interpret what you’ve found. While your results section presents the results, your discussion is aimed an explaining them. What do these data mean? How do they relate to what we know about SLA more generally (i.e., how do they relate to theories and/or research findings we’ve discussed or that you’ve read about)? In this section you also want to mention any difficulties you had during the data collection process and what you would do differently if you could take this project to the next level (e.g., with more participants or with additional tasks).

5. References

Cite all sources here (a minimum of four; APA format)

6. Appendix A

Attach your interview questions here.

7. Appendix B

If relevant, attach your data elicitation materials here

8. Appendix B

Attach your data set here.

L1 Native speaker(baseline)

·

Age: 21

· From Van Nuys, CA

· Length of L1 study: Native

· Education level: Junior at UCSC

· Linguistics major

· Father and mother both speaks English

· Mother is native english speaker, Father is Guatemalan.

1. When did you begin to study English?
My mother was a college freshman when she gave birth to me. As a result, she needed a babysitter or some sort of daycare to take care of me while she went to school and worked. She taught me basic English words and phrases that any parent would begin to teach their toddler. However, while she was busy, and once she found a trustworthy but inexpensive daycare to drop me off at, my English learning was picked up from there. I learned some numbers and some alphabet from a native Peruvian couple that spoke some English. 

Since they had multiple kids, and my mother later added my two younger siblings to their roster, the daycare had the money to buy interactive toys and activities to teach the youngest children some English. This included a very large rug that had every letter in the alphabet, along with a corresponding animal whose species started with that letter.
I would watch American English television programs for kids (in addition to some Spanish ones). My own father is native from Guatemala. To this day, his English is sometimes a little broken and ungrammatical. But it did not hinder my English learning.

0. How long have you studied English?
The last time I had an English class, where I learned grammar rules and how to read and write would be in high school. I’ve been learning English from when I was a toddler to senior year of high school, when I was 18 years old.
This question is a little odd for me, because I’ve never seen my English learning as anything other than inherent and intuitive. It was my first language, and because of some personal family issue, my only spoken language, despite my mother and father speaking fluent Spanish at home. Every book I’ve ever read, every article, every youtube video I’ve ever watched or listened to in the English language had secured such reasoning in my head. How could I have studied English past elementary school, if I could think in it?
I don’t really remember studying the grammar of English. Over the years, through speaking, listening, and reading in English, the grammar is ingrained. It’s just been so long that I don’t even remember any specific grammars. If it feels right, it feels right. Not even the red or blue squiggly lines in word processors can change my learned views over what I’ve studied and observed in the English language for years.

1. How did you study English at school? (all years studied)
Starting from Kindergarten, I began to formally learn the alphabet, and how to write. I already understood many words, because I was a child, and children are learning-sponges. From then on, my teachers would teach me concepts, like math and music, and use English to give directions, rules, and discuss patterns. I studied through writing really short essays, and I learned new words through pictures and history books.
I don’t quite remember learning the grammar in my early years, but I do remember being formally introduced to proper sentence structure in high school in order to write academic essays.

2. Was English spoken at all at home?
My parents had taught me both English and Spanish at home until it was discovered that my younger brother had a speech issue. He was taken to speech therapy, and to help him focus, my parents had to cut back on the Spanish studies. This occurred when I was young, and still in elementary school. So instead of becoming fluent in English alongside Spanish, English became my only language. I can still associate some Spanish words with English, and I have a small bit of an ear for it. But now I have to take Spanish classes to formally and officially learn to be fluent in it. I wonder if this would have happened with my English studies if for some reason my family had moved to Guatemala. My studies would parallel that to my years in English, and it just fascinates me sometimes.

3. Did any family members know English?
All my immediate family members know English. My father and his immediate family moved to America almost twenty two years ago, yet their English (especially his family) is broken, and they aren’t quite fluent in it, despite living in California for over twenty years. My mother’s side are from North Carolina, and they’re predominantly white Americans, so English is all they know.

4. What did you find most difficult while learning English?
The most difficult thing I found while learning English was essay formation. It was the bane of my existence to form an introduction paragraph. I found it weird to start things off with “Then, Thus, Finally, etc.” Also, after learning English for many years, there are some manners of speaking and writing that I had gotten accustomed to, which were found to be incorrect by my teachers. Learning how to correct them purposefully was difficult, since they weren’t intuitive to me.

5. How about now?
Other than just hating essays in general, I don’t have any of those difficulties any more, or in any other area of the English language (presumably). Though I may not know or care for the differences between “who’s” and “whose”, I’m sure there are many old formal grammar rules that I do not know about, even as a native English speaker.
But I must add that because of my intuitive process on the language, learning new and fresh lingo from meme culture has led to an accidental study in modern English language changes (as it has changed alongside the technology boom, and its corresponding lingo). And I find that neat.

6. Do you have any trouble with verb conjugations? EG. Past tense, current tense? Plurality of nouns?
I have a very good grasp on verb conjugations. However, even as a fluent speaker and writer in English, there are some verbs that I either briefly forget the conjugation to (Example: the past tense of “cut” being “cut” and not “cutted”, ungrammatical orally, but if I were to write something that included that word, I would have used the correct tense) or just find an ungrammatical version of it more personally grammatical. 

·

L2 learner

· Age: 21

· From Shenzhen, China. Moved to USA 4 years ago

· Shenzhen learners of English tend to have a better grasp on English due to the international industries and economy of Shenzhen.

· Length of L2 study: 6 years actively studying, not just basic in class studying(little attention given during previous studying of L2)

· Education level: Sophomore at UCSC

· CS game design major

· Father and mother both speaks English
·

1. When did you begin to study English?/How long have you studied English?

· As a normal Chinese student, I started to learn English when I was studying at pre school. I start by learning English alphabets at first and learning more later. Our educational system required us to learn English, so I learn through out my years at school from primary school to high school and continue to US highschool and University now.

2. How did you study English at school? (all years studied)

· At first, our teacher at pre school will just teach us english alphabets and some simple words like apple. Our pre school teacher basically let us remember those alphabets with reading out loud and watching image representation. Then, once I enter into primary school, our teacher start to teach us more about English with more vocabularies and reading english paragraphs. Our textbook usually come with audio recording which we can listen to and follow in order to imitate the pronounciation. Each morning, we will be lead by our teacher and read English paragraphs together. Our teacher usually have okay english pronouciation and strong grammar. After we learned some lessons, we will have exams to test our understanding about the material we covered. Before high school, the level of difficulties just increased, and the pattern of learning English didn’t change. I don’t pay too much attention during my early stage of English learning, so my English basic grammar is pretty bad. I start to pay more attention to English when I need to take the high school entrance exam. One of the required exam is English. It took me so much time before I started to become okay. My English skill has a major improve at my high school as I enter into the study abroad program which apply for America High school. Majority of my English grammar, vocabularies, and speaking skill comes from preparing the TOEFL exam. Later when I enter into America school, I basically enter into English environment which English is used every where. My English skill also improved a lot by studying in English only environment. But the improvement arc is increasing a lot faster at first, now the progress is limited and the arc of progress is increasing slower and slower than before.

3. Was English spoken at all at home?

· My dad’s job is working to negotiate conflict between foreign business and chinese business, so he will use some English and be able to talk in English. My dad sometime speaks English and wants me to speak back. My mum didn’t have strong English background at first, but after I went to study abroad, she start to study English as well and become comfortable to speak in English.

4. Did any family members know English?

· Majority of my old family members have the same generation as my dad, they understand a limited amount of English. I would say primary school level. People who have a generation above me, like my cousins, they have better English as the education system in China start taking care about English. Majority of them have middle level of English, which is good and grammar and writing, but not good at speaking and listening. One of my cousins who came to America University and study has good English skills. Then it is my family members who have the same generation or lower generation as me. At this point, the China education system have hard focus on English and provide lots of money in building up English study resource. The result is many of us have okay English skill but still leak in listening and speaking.

5. What did you find most difficult while learning English?/ How about now?

· I found out the most difficult part of learning English is writing and speaking. Where writing require clearity in sentences and good grammar, which I left a lot at first and hard for me to catch up. Speaking required practice with other people where English environment is hard to find in China and I and many Chinese people felt shy to speak with other people in English as we tend to make mistakes. Now these problems are still present, the grammar is hard to improve, but the speaking skill has increased a lot when I study in America where each day requires English.

APLX DATA L1

Verb Present tense Verb Past tense Verb Progressive tense Noun Noun Plural
Run Ran Running Intern Interns
Eat Ate Eating Laptop Laptops
Walk Walked Walking Homework Homeworks
Study Studied Studying Man Men
Swim Swam Swimming Person People
Practice Practiced Practicing Table Tables
Encounter Encountered Encountering House Houses
Admire Admired Admiring China(flatware) 瓷器 China
Hit Hit Hitting Car Cars
Sleep Slept Sleeping Goose Geese
Drive Drove Driving Volcano Volcanoes
See Saw Seeing Syllabus Syllabi
Do Did/Done Doing Potato Potatoes
Help Helped Helping Tooth Teeth
Cut Cut Cutting Woman Women
Bring Brung Bringing Glasses 眼镜 Glasses
Intern Interned Interning Computer Computers
Shower Showered Showering Deer Deer
Arise Arose Arising Foot Feet

APLX DATA L2

Verb Present tense Verb Past tense Verb Progressive tense Noun Noun Plural
Run Ran running Intern Interns
Eat ate eatting Laptop Laptops
Walk walked walking Homework Homeworks
Study Studied Studying Man men
Swim swam swimming Person people
Practice practiced practicing Table tables
Encounter encountered encounterring House houses
Admire admired admiring China(flatware) 瓷器 Chinese
Hit hitted hitting Car Cars
Sleep slept sleepping Goose Gooses
Drive drove driving Volcano Volcano
See saw seeing Syllabus Syllabus
Do did doing Potato potatos
Help helped helping Tooth teeth
Cut cutted cutting Woman Weman
Bring brought bring Glasses 眼镜 Glasses
Intern Intern Interning Computer Computers
Shower showered showerring Deer Deer
Arise arised arising Foot Feet

16/20 17/20 12/20

APLX DATA ANSWERS

Verb Present tense Verb Past tense Verb Progressive tense Noun Noun Plural
Run Ran Running Intern Interns
Eat Ate Eating Laptop Laptops
Walk Walked Walking Homework Homework
Study Studied Studying Man Men
Swim Swam Swimming Person People
Practice Practiced Practicing Table Tables
Encounter Encountered Encountering House Houses
Admire Admired Admiring China(flatware) 瓷器 China
Hit Hit Hitting Car Cars
Sleep Slept Sleeping Goose Geese
Drive Drove Driving Volcano Volcanoes
See Saw Seeing Syllabus Syllabi
Do Did/Done Doing Potato Potatoes
Help Helped Helping Tooth Teeth
Cut Cut Cutting Woman Women
Bring Brought Bringing Glasses 眼镜 Glasses
Intern Interned Interning Computer Computers
Shower Showered Showering Deer Deer
Arise Arose Arising Foot Feet